Translating soundscape scales

Sounds in the City has been exploring questions of translation of soundscape scales, given the unique bilingual context offered by Montreal. We have been looking at the vocabulary used by French and English speakers to describe everyday sounds and soundscapes as well as similarities and differences between them; for example, the distinction between “sound” and “noise” differs between French and English.

We also proposed and tested French translations of the Swedish Soundscape Quality Protocol, an 8-scale questionnaire to evaluate soundscape on pleasantness and eventfulness. In addition, we are participating in global efforts of standardization and translation of soundscape assessment tools, such as ISO working groups and the Soundscape AttributesTranslationProject (SATP), an international research project started in 2019.

For details, please contact: Cynthia Tarlao, Catherine Guastavino

For media coverage on the project, check these links:

For the academic output, consult these publications and links:

Tarlao, C., Aumond. P., Lavandier, C., & Guastavino, C. (2023). Converging towards a French translation of soundscape attributes: Insights from Quebec and France. Applied Acoustics, 211: 109572, doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2023.109572

Dubois, D., Cance, C., Coler, M., Paté., A. & Guastavino, C. eds (2021). Sensory Experiences: Exploring meaning and the senses. Benjamins, Amsterdam, NL. doi.org/10.1075/celcr.24

Aletta, F., Oberman, T., Axelsson, ., Xie, H., Zhang, Y., Lau S-K., Tan, S-K, Jambrošić, K., De Coensel, B., van den Bosch, K., Aumond, P., Guastavino, C., Lavandier, C., Fiebig, A., Schulte-Fortkamp, B., Sarwono, J., Sudarsono, A., Astolfi, A., Nagahata, K., Jeon J-Y, Jo, H-I., Chieng, J., Gan, W-S., Hong J-H., Lam, B., Ong, Z-T., Kogan, P., Su.rez Silva, E., Vida Manzano, J., D.kmeci Y.rükoğlu, P. N., Nguyen, T. L., Kang, J. (2020). Soundscape assessment: towards a validated translation of perceptual attributes in different languages. Invited paper. Proceedings of the 49th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineerin (Internoise 2020), Seoul, Korea, August 23-26, 2020

Cance, C., Guastavino, C., & Dubois, D. (2011). Languages and conceptualizations of soundscapes: A cross-linguistic analysis. Proceedings of the 162nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Oct. 31- Nov. 4, San Diego, CA, USA. Abstract published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 130(4), 2495, http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3654926

Dubois, D. & Guastavino, C. (2008). Noise(s) and sound(s): comparing various conceptualizations of acoustic phenomena across languages. Invited paper at Acoustics’08 (joint meeting of the 155th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, 5th Forum Acusticum, and 9th Congr.s Francais d’Acoustique), June 29 to July 4, 2008, Paris, France, abstract published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123, 3674 (2008).